Gallup survey: Beer’s popularity falling – Do you believe it?

While still popular, beer is becoming a harder sale for young folks and people of color. (Getty Images)

Despite the proliferation of microbrews and craft beers, drinking Americans are losing interest in beer in favor of wine and liquor, according to a new Gallup survey.

Come on. This is one of those surveys that makes you wonder about the validity of polls … but then maybe we’re drinking in the wrong watering holes.

The more objective researchers at Gallup report:

Americans who drink alcohol are about equally likely to say they drink beer (36%) or wine (35%) most often. Another 23% say liquor is their beverage of choice. That continues the trend in which beer has declined as the preferred beverage of U.S. drinkers, shrinking its advantage over wine from 20 percentage points in 1992 to one point today.

The poll also finds that the split between drinkers and nondrinkers is about the same as it has been – 60 percent.

The biggest demographic change – and the major reason beer is faltering as America’s favorite drink – is a shift in preferences among young people and people of color.

“Young adult drinkers’ alcoholic beverage preferences have changed dramatically over the past two decades. In the early 1990s, 71% of adults under age 30 said they drank beer most often; now it is 41% among that age group. There has been a much smaller decline in the percentage of 30- to 49-year-olds who say they drink beer the most, from 48% to 43%, with essentially no change in older drinkers’ beer preference,” Gallup writes.

“Since the early 1990s, both whites and nonwhites have become less likely to choose beer as their favorite alcoholic drink. However, nonwhites have shown a greater shift than whites, down 19 points and nine points, respectively. Both racial groups’ preferences for wine have increased, with smaller gains in both groups’ preferences for liquor,” Gallup writes.

A writer at The Atlantic surmises that, for one, we think wine is tasty and healthier and so tip reds and whites more than ambers. Also, the Atlantic wonders if maybe lower-class white guys have been hit hard by two recessions and aren’t drinking as much beer.

And, liquor ads work:

TV used to be a little less boozy and a lot more innocent. Liquor ads didn’t air on U.S. television until 1996, according to WSJ, “when a local NBC station in Texas agreed to run a commercial for Crown Royal whiskey.” It’s only very recently that they’ve started running ads on broadcast networks. Since liquor marketing came out of the cabinet, liquor sales are up.

What about you?

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